Some More Of My WHIFs

[tigercat2]

Here is another What if - What if; the Arado E555, again evaluated by the USAF and put into service in the early '50s in Korea as the "B-53".


Wes W.

[ChernayaAkula]

  USAF Arado for the win!

[MarkH262]

Love the 1/48 scale A-10 engines. Ingenious!

[tigercat2]

Actually the A-10 engine nacelles are from a 1/72 kit; Monogram, IIRC.

Here are a few more shots of the USAF version of the E555, along with another What If Stablemate, the Hughes R-11B.  Both were used quite a bit in the Korean conflict, in this world.  BTW, the R-11 is HUGE!!  It is 1/72, of course, but is way bigger than a 1/48 P-38.


Wes W.

[tigercat2]

Here is another "almost What if" What if.  The story here is that the USAF got a bunch of AR-234s at the end of the war, put an early turboprop engine on each wing, flipped the nacelle upside down, and had a strike fighter. 


Wes W.

[ChernayaAkula]

^ Damn!  Now that is cool! 

[thedarkmaster]

 

love the ar234      

[tigercat2]

Thanks for the comments on the "USAF AR-234".  It was so easy to do that I recently built another one; this one does not have spinners for the props.  Hopefully I can get a couple of P-51 kits cheap or perhaps an F-82 for the props.  I used the old Lindberg kit for the AR-234s.  This is my kind of kit; you can slap it together in a few minutes and then make it whatever you want.

This new "USAF AR-234" is on the upper right of the photo; there are a few other What If aircraft as well.

Wes W.

[Brian da Basher]

My favorite of these is that Ar 234 converted to a prop job with the night fighter scheme! I have a real soft spot for whiffs converting jets to props and vice-versa. Well done, Wes!

Brian da Basher

[tigercat2]

Here is a little better photo of the USAF AR-234 "V2"; still waiting for new props with spinners.


Wes W.

[sequoiaranger]

>I used the old Lindberg kit for the AR-234s.  This is my kind of kit; you can slap it together in a few minutes and then make it whatever you want.<

Actually, the Lindberg kit has the proper oval fuselage contours, NOT the Frog/Revell or expensive DML versions, which are both way too flat on top!!!! I have all three. The "modern" DML version features beautiful detail, lovely nose perspex, cool add-ons, BUT.....the fuselage contours which spill over onto the nose, are too "D" shaped, with the flat part of the "D" on top. Every cross-section I have seen of the Ar-234 has a rounded dorsal fuselage, like the Lindberg kit. There are a couple of Ar-234's in existence, so there seems to be no reason for a major model manufacturer to mess it up.

Then again, the Aichi Seiran at the Smithsonian is easy to see and photograph, yet the Tamiya kit has an unrealistic FLAT ventral rear fuselage that should be rounded like every other Aichi product of the period ("Jake", "Judy", "Val", "Grace"). I just don't get it.

[Spey_Phantom]

is that a Belgian FW190 i see there on the bottom 

[sideshowbob9]

is that a Belgian FW190 i see there on the bottom 

Are there FW-190s in that picture?

Lovin' the Arados and R-11 

[tigercat2]

Yes, there are FW-190s in the photo; I have about 40 FWs in all sorts of various markings; some out of the box, but most were done as What ifs.



Wes W.

[Tophe]

  Many beautiful models. My favourite: the R-11, I don't know why...